My name is Richard McBride and I have ALS. I was diagnosed in November 2012 at 57 years of age. This blog will cover my journey. Just remember, I am living with ALS, not dying from it.

Tuesday, 31 January 2017

Getting Up This Morning

I am, just now, back from seeing my new Family Doctor, picking up some emergency antibiotics in case I get another infection while I am on the road, and doing a bit of grocery shopping. None of this is of any great import; it's just another day in the life. That is, until you factor in ALS. Then even this short list is a major excursion. And I'm planning on yet another outing today, in about an hour, to pick up a GPS/Dashcam unit for my truck so we can have it with us on the road trip.

My new Family Doctor is in the professional building beside the mall, close enough that I can get in almost any time, with ready wheelchair access to his office and the building. This new doctor also knows a lot about ALS, having had a close friend with the illness and having seen it in his practice before me. This is a good thing. Once again, not of great import right now; just another thing in my life.

The thing of real import today was the time it took me to get ready for even this small excursion across the road. It's taking me ever longer to do even the simplest of morning routine things. Today, knowing that I had my appointment at 11:30 AM, I got up at 10:00 AM, plenty of time to get ready and go. My plan was 30 minutes for the bathroom, 30 minutes for dressing, and 30 minutes for coffee and my blog. His office is only 3 minutes from here, so I figured that would work itself out.

What really happened was 30 minutes for the bathroom, 45 minutes for dressing, and 15 minutes for putting on my coat, shoes, hat, gloves, and then making the lift transfer from the wheelchair to the power wheelchair. Oh, and the catheter too; that was in there with the getting dressed. It takes about 10 minutes. I got to the appointment on time. I just didn't get a chance to have my morning coffee or write a blog post.

This is happening more and more to me, where my time estimates are incorrect, simply because I no longer know for sure how long it will take me to do my morning stuff. I take longer on the toilet these days. I take longer to make the transfers. I take longer to dress myself. I take longer to do almost anything and everything. So what was once a quick start to my day has become a long, drawn out, energy consuming marathon.

I have to get used to this. The only thing is that I have to get used to it again, and again, and again; over and over, every single day. Things are changing. What was once my standard has become too little time. So if I have an appointment at 11:30 AM, it looks like I will have to get up at 9:30 AM. In light of all this, I am making a concerted effort to shift my day forward, going to bed earlier at night and getting up earlier in the morning. I hate it, but it looks like I'll have to do it.